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Friday, June 12, 2015

Teal Peek: A Finished Cotton and Steel Mini Quilt

I signed up for the Cotton and Steel Mini Quilt Swap (#cottonandsteelminiquiltswap)
on Instagram without thinking much about it. It was an automatic,
"well, duh!" move for me - I love C + S fabrics and I knew I would enjoy making a mini for someone else. This
was my first swap on Instagram, though I've done many through my guild,
privately, and on Flickr in the past.

My partner says she likes teals, blues, and C+S light fabrics. I made sure the back had plenty of teal, too (awesome cheater print!):

Then came the Mid-Atlantic Mod retreat, which I realize I've harped on and on about for a while now. I signed up for Melanie's Peek Block class (the pattern is out now!) and decided it would be fun to accomplish both in one fell swoop. I gathered up my materials, and Mel helped me
decide on fabric placement for a scrappy block. I learned a lot about how to check that my quarter inch seams are accurate (besides merely eyeballing them, of course :) ). It was easy to just finish
the mini up at the retreat; I was so enamored with it!

I would totally keep this if it wasn't for the swap (that's how you know you made a good swap item, amiright?). I added on an extra border of the white X's
because the mini wasn't big enough for the swap (now it is!). I asked my retreat friends how I should go about quilting the
middle and eventually the perfect solution arose: quilt a mini Peek
block right in the middle. I sketch-quilted with my FMQ foot to make it
stand out more (I marked a few places with my Hera marker).

I also made four reversible coasters for my partner out of Cotton and Steel fabrics. For swap extras, I'm big on making something else instead of sending food or chocolate (many times I received packages of melted chocolate! No fun!). Plus, this way you avoid ANY allergies that might come up.

I really hope my partner likes it! I have to sew on a label before next week. Then I need to start the extras for my next two swaps (at least the mini quilts are done!). I'll be sure to post when my C and S mini arrives here soon! I can't wait!!